Aftermath
by aechfic
Summary: Luffy may not know exactly what happened, but he suspects there's a specific reason why his swordsman's in such bad shape... LuZo; spoilers for Ch489 and earlier.


He regains consciousness slowly, drifting on dark tides that envelope his battered mind and refuse to release it completely, although he's sure he hears the murmur of familiar voices. At one point he's sure he hears music, but his body refuses to response when he tries to open his eyes, and he doesn't feel the hands that carry him to the ship later that evening, moving cautiously to avoid jarring his injuries.

The moment of impact plays on an endless loop, striking him over and over with that hideous pain that's more intense than any he's experienced before. Even Mihawk's victory blow, the one that might have torn his torso in half if the master swordsman hadn't held back at the last moment, pales in comparison.

But the fear is worse than the pain. Not fear that he will die, because he's been prepared for that since he took up Wado and made the vow that put him on this path, but fear that he's been played and that Kuma took his captain's head anyway.

He dimly remembers Sanji finding him afterwards, where he stood motionless in the smoking crater as blood continued to drip from his ravaged frame, so he's pretty sure that the shitty cook is still alive. He does not, however, remember his decisive statement that nothing happened or the way he crumpled like a paper doll when his horrified nakama grasped his arm.

xxx

It's late afternoon when he finally opens his eyes, although he's too disoriented to focus on the faces peering anxiously into his and doesn't know that he's been unconscious for more than twelve hours, long enough that his crew mates have been cautiously whispering about comas behind Luffy's back.

"Don't you dare move a muscle!" Chopper warns him, and unnecessarily so, because he's so heavily bandaged that defying the doctor would prove impossible even if he had the strength to do more than blink in confusion.

"W-Why don't his eyes look right?"

"Usopp, please let Sanji know that Zoro's awake. Tell him I said liquids only until we know how if he can keep anything down," Chopper orders, neatly evading Usopp's hesitant question, and stares the sniper down when he presses the issue.

He rushes out the infirmary door, shouting for Sanji.

Zoro doesn't care about food. There's a hollow ache in his empty stomach, sure enough, but food isn't what he needs right now. He opens his mouth to demand that someone bring him Luffy, but the words emerge as a strangled croak of pain.

Chopper jumps down off his stool, vanishing momentarily as he moves outside the swordsman's line of sight. He returns transformed to Heavy Point and carrying a bowl of ice chips, which he sets aside on the mattress so he can seat himself at his patient's side and carefully raise the injured man's head and shoulders in the curve of his arm. "Don't try to talk yet. These will h-"

Even though Chopper's trying to be gentle, being moved hurts like hell; red starbursts erupt behind Zoro's eyes and he blacks out momentarily, his body convulsing in the doctor's arms. His elbow strikes the bowl and knocks it from the bed, sending bits of ice skittering across the floor.

There's a sharp intake of breath from across the room, and the reindeer looks up to find Sanji standing in the doorway, clutching its frame so violently that his knuckles look bloodless. Usopp hovers nervously behind the cook, one hand fisted in the fabric of Sanji's shirt tightly enough to drag it off his shoulder. They and the doctor stare at each other, white-faced.

"Nngh…" Zoro grunts, and Chopper looks down to find the swordsman staring up at him, pupils dilated even more unevenly than when he first opened his eyes. The bewilderment on his crew mate's bruised face sends a chill through the doctor, because there's no trace of the combative and moody patient that he's accustomed to treating.

"Was that a seizure?" Sanji demands, tearing away from the terrified sniper clinging to his arm and crossing the room quickly to take a closer look.

"I don't know!" Chopper wails back, his composure slipping because he's already been stretching his medical knowledge to its limits trying to treat Zoro's injuries, the likes of which he's never seen before. He's decimated his stock of bandages and resorted to ripping up their clothing to make more because all of the swordsman's scars, what should be old healed wounds, seem as though they've re-opened.

A cold, clinical corner of his mind wonders how the hell Zoro is even still alive. When Sanji stumbled into the ruins carrying his limp body and screaming for the doctor, Chopper had gagged at the hot, coppery stink clinging to the swordsman's blood-drenched skin and clothing. Usopp and Nami had both actually vomited, and Luffy-

Chopper never wants to see that expression on their captain's face again.

Sanji reaches out and takes Zoro's face between his hands, examining his eyes closely and wincing when he sees the mismatched pupils. The swordsman flinches at his touch and mutters something incomprehensible, his words slurred beyond recognition.

"Concussion?"

Chopper nods. "He's also in shock because he lost so much blood."

"He's going to be okay, right?" Usopp pleads, eyes locked on the fresh trickle of red creeping down the corner of Zoro's mouth. He's finally joined them at the bedside, arms crossed so tightly that he's hugging himself, and Sanji doubts he knows he's doing it. "I mean, it's Zoro, right?"

To his dismay, Chopper doesn't answer and Sanji slowly releases his hold on Zoro, his brow furrowed. "Guys, c'mon, right?"

"I-I don't know," Chopper says again, more calmly this time but still sounding distressed. "Usopp, we don't even know what happened to him."

Sanji hesitates, wondering if he should tell the other two what he saw before losing consciousness on the battle field and what Lola's pirates told him. Chopper should know at least, in case it gives the doctor some kind of insight that can help their nakama.

He opens his mouth to speak and a shaking hand suddenly grips his wrist, squeezing hard enough to make him gasp. Zoro is glaring up at him, and although he's clearly having trouble focusing on the cook's face and his hand is trembling more violently with every passing moment, he looks slightly more coherent.

"Shhhu-"

Watching him struggle valiantly to form the words makes the cook's chest ache, especially because he already knows what Zoro's trying to tell him. Shut up. Keep it to yourself, asshole. And Sanji will, although he wants to punch that glowering face because the swordsman is such a goddamn moron.

He twists his wrist free, scoops up a handful of loose ice chips from the sheets and crams them into Zoro's mouth, ignoring Chopper's cry of protest and Usopp's startled exclamation.

"Your doctor told you not to talk, idiot Marimo!"

The insult comes naturally, although it's immediately accompanied by a flash of guilt, and that makes the cook even angrier, because after seeing Zoro ready to sacrifice himself to save Luffy - and the rest of them as well, he supposes - Sanji knows he will find it very hard to avoid slipping and actually saying something nice to the shithead.

"I'll be back," he snaps, glaring down at Zoro. "I think there's some leftover broth in the fridge that doesn't have too much mold on it yet."

"Bassstard," the swordsman hisses back, and Chopper looks immensely relieved because it's the first time that Zoro's sounded anything like himself since he regained consciousness.

xxx

He spends the next three hours drifting in and out of restless sleep, woken by his protesting body every time he starts to doze off, because Chopper's afraid to dose him too heavily with pain medication. He's concerned that Zoro might just lose consciousness and never wake up. Although his wounds have stopped bleeding, the swordsman's temperature is elevated, giving the doctor something new to be concerned about as he digs through his medical texts searching for more information on sepsis.

xxx

When Zoro wakes again, shivering uncontrollably despite the warm air, Chopper's absent but he finds Luffy curled up next to him. He's strongly aware of the captain's presence before he opens his eyes, conscious of the body heat warming his side. It hurts to move, but he finally succeeds in brushing the younger pirate's shoulder with his fingertips, and Luffy stirs, yawning and rubbing furiously at his eyes. "Oh, I fell asleep!"

He sits up too fast, jostling the swordsman and immediately apologizing at the man's hiss of pain.

"Sorry, sorry! I fell asleep 'cause Zoro was so comfy."

"-were you?" Zoro asks weakly, his voice still faint and cracking, although it's stronger. Chopper's ice chips may not have worked miracles, but at least he no longer feels as though he's trying to communicate through a throat full of glass shards and sand. "Kept looking for you."

"Nami locked me out." Luffy scowls, and then grins smugly. "Robin helped me sneak in, but she said I gotta leave before Chopper comes back."

The swordsman sighs and closes his eyes, hoping that the historian manages to keep the navigator occupied. He doesn't think Nami will just burst in and start beating Luffy senseless for disobeying her, but he knows the woman loses her temper with the captain even when he is actively listening to her, and he's feeling too tired and too sore to deal with their caterwauling right now.

"Zoro slept through the party, even when I went and got rum," Luffy accuses good-naturedly, his fingertips tracing the bandages swathing the swordsman's torso as he cuddles closer. "And we got a new nakama. That skeleton guy? He's a musician! He sings, and he plays the piano, and he's really, really funny!"

The captain's trying to be careful, but he soon gets carried away talking about their new crewmate and forgets himself. The third time he accidentally slaps his hand down on Zoro's chest, the swordsman can't take it anymore and grabs for the offending limb. He hurts enough already without Luffy smacking him, and the captain's hyper-activeness is only adding to his discomfort. "Ow! Oi, Luffy, stop-"

Chopper's warned him repeatedly about avoiding stress and not trying to get out of bed, but he's not expecting so little movement to trigger the painful spasm that grips his body.

The seizure leaves him dazed and confused, and reality filters back into his skull one small piece at a time, until he eventually realizes that his head's cradled against Luffy's chest, and the captain is running gentle fingers through his hair, calling his name and sounding more unsure each moment that he goes unanswered. "Zoro? Zoro!"

He's so goddamn tired; the swordsman's sure he's never been this physically and mentally exhausted in his life. All of the insane fighting since they've reached the Grandline, against Baroque Works agents, that obnoxious lightning-using self-proclaimed deity in Skypeia and the weird giraffe guy - and there's been a hoard of other minor battles and scuffles that he doesn't consider as particularly memorable - and none of it's left him feeling so incompetent as he does now. No, it's always the goddamn Shichibukai...

"Zoro!"

For a moment he wants to tell Luffy to just get out and leave him alone, but he knows the captain will refuse and put up a fight, and he can't take Luffy yelling at him right now, because he doesn't really want him to go. His throat tightens involuntarily, turning his "please" - please go away, please stay, please tell me I did the right thing, please tell me you don't know what I did - into a low whine, and the weak desperation in his own voice finally undoes him.

Luffy goes still and quiet as the swordsman starts bawling silently in his arms. It's not as though he's never seen Zoro lose it before; he's never forgotten that vow at the Baratie, when the swordsman, face plastered with blood and seawater and tears and snot at the pain and humiliation of losing to Hawk Eyes, declared that he'd never lose again. True, Luffy couldn't actually see the man's face, but he heard the strangled emotion in his voice.

So this soundless crying kind of scares him, and he doesn't like the way Zoro's fists, now knotted in his vest, clench tighter each time a silent sob hitches his bandaged chest. "Zoro..."

He wipes tears from his swordsman's face and watches helplessly as more immediately replace them. He's never been spectacular at offering this kind of comfort to his crewmates; Luffy's approach normally involves turning around and storming off to kick the ass of who- or whatever is upsetting his nakama, but there's no battle to fight this time - no Arlong or Captain Kuro or Don Krieg or Wapol or CP9 to defeat.

And while the man now clinging against Luffy's chest is definitely his friend - probably his best friend, if he actually made distinctions like that among his crew - he's always been a lot more. First mate, although no one's ever used that title and probably never will, but definitely first to join him on a ship, if that long-gone leaky sailboat could ever be considered such. First to fight at his side, first to shed blood defending not only his life but his lofty ambitions. First in a lot of things.

He's not exactly thinking about any of this as he tilts Zoro's tear-streaked face towards his own and claims his swordsman's lips in an open-mouthed kiss, because it's the only way he can think to offer comfort, but he feels it.

Zoro's entire body jerks in surprise, which hurts, and he moans into Luffy's mouth, sagging in his arms. The older pirate's face feels overly warm under his touch, as though he's radiating an insane amount of heat, and Luffy thinks he remembers Chopper saying something about a fever.

"Zoro's always taking care of me," Luffy murmurs, gently but firmly pushing away the hands trying to pull him back when he draws away. "Let me take care of Zoro."

He presses the swordsman down against the bed, and Zoro's too weak to resist, head drooping against the pillow as solicitous hands stroke his chest and stomach. It's typically not in Luffy's nature's to be gentle, but the expression on his face is one of grim determination; he's not wearing his hat - it's sitting on the doctor's desk across the room - but the swordsman's seen that serious look before, staring out from under its brim.

Zoro doesn't think this is going to work, but he holds back his protest as his captain's fingers caress and coax, shortly joined by a mouth planting kisses and licks and cautious nibbles, and his body responds anyway. It's simultaneously too much and not enough; his brain feels fuzzy, as though there's cotton blocking his ears, and Luffy's faint hum of satisfaction sounds very far away.

When release finally comes, it's not the explosive pleasure to which he's accustomed, but a warm glow that builds and builds in his stomach until it finally brims over and spills through the rest of his body, and he calls his captain's name in a soft moan.

Wiping his mouth, Luffy crawls up and tucks himself carefully under Zoro's arm, resting his head lightly against the swordsman's shoulder. Unusually taciturn, he snuggles closer and listens, one hand petting the older pirate's side ceaselessly until his breathing slows.

xxx

Chopper nearly drops the stack of books he's holding when he lets himself into the infirmary and Luffy's head suddenly pops up on the other side of Zoro's prone form, the captain hissing at him to be quiet because the swordsman's sleeping, although he's forgetting to whisper himself.

"Luffy! What are you doing in here? Nami's looking for you!" He warns in a hushed tone, reverting to Brain Point after he piles his texts on the desk next to the straw hat, and Luffy grimaces because he was hoping the navigator would forget about him. Maybe he can hide under the bed if she comes searching.

Then he remembers what he wanted to tell the doctor and his face instantly brightens as it's stretched with a monstrous grin. "I fixed Zoro!"

"You what?" Chopper asks cautiously. He takes a step forward, his nose twitching suddenly as it recognizes a distinct odor beneath the scents of disinfectant and salve, and he shoots the beaming captain a rather horrified look. "Luffy, you don't heal injured people with sex!"

"But I did," Luffy asserts, watching in amusement as Chopper rushes for a stethoscope and thermometer while ranting at him for molesting his patient, frantic with concern that he'll find the swordsman in worse shape than before he left for the library.

To his surprise and relief, Zoro's heartbeat is strong and steady, and the reading on the thermometer is normal when he tugs it from the sleeping man's mouth. "His fever broke!"

"I told you," Luffy pouts, "I fixed Zoro!"

xxx

In the end, Chopper's never sure exactly what actually turns things around, but Luffy puts his foot down and insists he's sleeping in the infirmary despite Nami's protests, and it's not much later that Sanji kicks Zoro and the captain out. Because, he insists, if the damn marimo's feeling decent enough to make so much noise that the cook can hear him from the kitchen, they can both go back to sleeping in the men's quarters so he can prepare meals in relative peace.

The doctor pitches a fit, insisting the convalescent swordsman's still under his care, but Zoro's already arguing that he's fine - even if the cook is an asshole - and Chopper can't stop him when he lifts the sheathed remains of Yubashiri in a reverential grasp and tells everyone he's leaving the ship for a bit.

His exit draws grumbles and eye-rolling exasperation from several crewmates, but Luffy just smiles widely and watches from the Sunny's deck, because he already knows where the swordsman's going.


End file.
